Controlling device for electrical door-openers.



No. 677,783. Patent-ed July 2, |901.

G. A. LE FEvnE.

CNTBDLLING DEVICE FR ELECTRICAL DUUR PENERS;

(Application led July 30, 1,900.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet l.

51d i Floor Fam] 2nd F1001 1st F1001 NVENTOR 4ATTORNEY WITNESSES CUNTROLLING DEVICE FURYEL-ECTRICAL DOOR OPENERS.

(Application led July 80, 1900.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

'- wluTNEssEs: 9 lNvENToR' BY A e .f ATTonNEY vu: noms 51ans w. Hammam wis'kmugoufu. c.

UNITED 'STATES PATENT OFFICE."

GEORGE A. LE FEVRE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CONTROLLING DEVICE FOR ELECTRICAL DOOR-OPENERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent NO. 677,783, dated. July 2, 1901. d

Application filed J 1115r 30, 1900. Serial No. 25,359. (No model.)

attachments for elevator-wells, and especially.

for use inconnectionwith electrically-operated or partially-operated door-openers.

The object of my invention is to produce a very simple electrical device by means of which the door-openers of the several iioors of a building are arranged on an open circuit and held thus, so that they cannot be operated until the elevator-cage reaches the floor at which it is desired to have the door open, when the circuit will be automatically closed and the door-opener capable of the usual operation.

My invention is intended for use with any ordinary door-opener, and relates especially to automatic means for closing the circuit at j ust the right time and for holding the circuit open at all other times, and it will be seen that this will prevent any accidental or mischievous operation of the doors of an elevator-Well.

To these ends my invention consists of certain features of construction and in the arrangement or organization of certain circuits and circuit closing devices, which will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference refer to similar parts throughout both views.

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic elevation of a portion of an elevator-well, a series of dooropeners, the circuits, and the means for closing the circuits embodying myinvention; and Fig. 2 is a similar view, but illustrates a modication of the invention, in which the elevator-eageactually closes the circuit, whereas in Fig. l the circuit is closed by a mechanism connected with the gearing of the elevator.

In Fig. 1 I have illustrated diagrammatically three iioorsof a'buil'ding having the usual elevator-well, andat a point Within easy connection of the elevator-gearing or operating mechanism-say in the basemen t-are located pairs of contacts 1U and 10a, 11 and 11a, and 12 and 12, there being a pair ot' contacts for each floor of the building. These contacts are arranged on a convenient support, as 13,

so that a contact-plate 14 may be made to slide over their faces, and the length of the contact-plate is such that it will successively engage each pair of contacts and will electrically connect them at the proper time. The contact-plate 14.v is carried by a belt 15, running over suitable pulleys or drums 16, and the belt, as illustrated, is frictionally driven by a Wheel 17, and the latter is turned by a sprocket-wheel 18, which is driven bya chain 19, connected with a second sprocketwheel 20, and this in turn may be driven gearing-as, for instance, the shaft 20 of the cable-Winding drum 2Gb. The mechanism for moving the contact-plate 14 is timed so that when the elevator-cage is opposite the rst iioor of the building the contact-plate 14 will engage and close the circuit through the contacts 10 and 10a. When the elevator-cage Vreaches the second iioor, the contact-'plate will close the circuit through the contacts 11 and 11a, andwhen the cage is .opposite the third oor the contact-plate will close the circuit through the contacts 12 and 12, It Will be readily seen that this arrangement may be carried out for any number of ioors, and it Will also be understood that the means Afor moving the contact-plate is immaterial and that very many mechanical devices can be used for bringing the plate to the correct position as the car or cage progresses upward and downward. While other devices may be used for moving the belt 15 and the contactplate 10a over the several contacts, yet the fact that these contacts 10, 11, 11a, 12, and 12, dac., are grouped and centralized in one compact body is a very important feature of the invention, as it enables the mechanical part of the circuit-closing mechanism to be arranged in some small and inconspic'uous place.

In the drawings I have shown diagram matically the most common form, 21, of electrical door-opener in use, in which when the circuit rfrom some convenient part of the elevatorroo is closed through it the magnet of the dooropener lifts the latch 22 of the door to the elevator-well, permitting the door to be opened either manually or by mechanism. It will be noticed that the parts 2l when operated simply release the door; but I have referred to them as door-openers, as this is their ordinary trade-name, and obviously my invention can be used with any usual style dooropener. The door-opener is provided With a push-button 23 or other form of circuit-closer, so that the circuit may at the proper time be closed and the door opened. This arrangement is not novel, but is novel in connection with the circuits and the circuit-closing mechanism which I have partly described above and will continue below. The circuits, as illustrated, are as follows: for the first floor, from the battery A, through the Wires a a', the circuit-closer 2l of the first floor, wire a2, the contacts l0 and 102, the contact-plate 14, and wire a3, back to the battery; for the second licor, from the battery A, through the Wire a, the Wire a4, the door-opener of the second floor, the Wire a5, the contacts 11 and 11a, the contact-plate 14:, the Wire a6, and the wire a3, back to the battery; for -the third floor, from the battery A, through the Wire a, the door-opener of the third ioor, the wire a7, the contacts 12 and 12a, the contact-plate 14, and the Wires asand CL3, back to the battery.

As illustrated in Fig. 1, the circuit is closed through the door-opener of the first licor, and atlthis point the elevator car or cage will be at thelirst door, and it will be seen that if a person should attempt to open a door at any other floor he would be unable to do so, as the circuit would bc broken atthe contacts 11 and 11a or 12 and 12. When, however, the push-button or circuit-closer 23 is operated at the appropriate floor, as at the first floor in the case mentioned, the circuit Will be closed in the lnanner just above traced and the door can be operated. Of course it will be understood 'that Where the time push-buttons are used--that is, the push buttons which stay in on a closed circuit for a certain time-the push-buttons might be operated When the elevator-cage is at any iioor and the circuit Would be closed and the door opened when the cage reached the desired floor, as in this case the contact-plate 14 would have come opposite the appropriate contacts and the circuit Would be closed, as above described.

To illustrate the fact that many devices may be used for closing the circuit at the desired time and for holding it open at all other times, I haveshown a modification in Fig. 2. Here the door-opener is as already described; but at every floor is a break in the circuit, as at 24, which is closed by a contact-plate 25, and the latter, as illustrated, is pushed into position to close the circuit by the striking plate or cam 26 or equivalent device, Which is carried on the cage 27, As illustrated in Fig. 2, the several circuits are as follows: for

'the first floor, from the battery B, through A the Wire b, the Wire b', and door-opener 21 of the first Hoor, the contacts and circuit-closer 24 and 25, the Wire b2, and the Wire b3, back to the battery; for the second floor, from the battery B, through the Wire b, the Wire b4, and ,door-opener 2l of the second floor, the contacts and circuit-closer 24 and 25 of the second floor, and the Wires b5 and b3, back to the battery; for the third fioor, from the battery B, through the Wire I) and dooropener 21 of the third door, the contacts and circuit-closer 24 and 25 of the third floor, and

the wire b3, back to the battery. It Will be seen, therefore, that the structure shown in Fig. 2 is the Same in principle as that shown in Fig. 1, only the closing of the circuit is effected by the movement of the car itself instead of by the movement of some part actuated by the gearing of the car; but in both cases the circuit is closed When the car comes to rest at any floor, subject, of course, to the operation of the push-button.

-In the foregoing description I have described a moving part of the elevator apparatus as closing the circuit through the door-openers 21; but it will be understood, of course, that this circuit is subject to the control of the ordinary push-button 23 or an equivalent circuit-closing device. I have, therefore, in the claims referred to the mechanism operated by some moving part of the elevator apparatus as closing the circuit, and it will be understood that While the circuit is vcontrolled by the push-button to a certain extent it can only be so controlled when theV circuit is closed through the apparatus forming a part of my invention, and the structure -in the claims is therefore believed to be sufficiently defined.

It will be noticed in my invention that hardly any mechanism is used and that the operation of the door-opener is subject really vto two circuit-closers, one being closed by the l elevator car or gearing, as described, and the `other by the push-button, but that the pushbutton is of no use except when the first circuit-closer is operated.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In an elevator, the combination with the operating mechanism and the electrical dooropeners, of a circuit-closer automatically op erated by the movement of a portion of the elevator apparatus as the car reaches a floor,- and a second circuit-'closer operative in connection `with the first circuit-closer to release the door-opener.

2. In an elevator, the combination With the' operating mechanism and the electrical door-A openers at the several ioors of the elevator- Well, of a centralized series of contacts comprising a pair of contacts in the circuit of each dooropener, a contact-plate slidable IOO over the several pairs of contacts, and means In testimony whereof I have signed my for' moving the contact-plate from the elevaname to this specification 1n the presence of tor-operating mechanism, said means being two subscribing witnesses.

timed so that the plate will engage a pair of GEORGE A. LE FEVRE. 5 contacts at the same time that the elevator- Witnesses:

cage comes opposite the door-opener which is WARREN B. HUTCHINSON,

in the circuit of the said conta-cts. WILLIAM N. BARRY. 

